1986 Vienna Convention. Article 34: General rule regarding third States and third organizations
(2025) The Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties — ISBN: [9780198879312], published
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- Abstract
- The text of Article 34 of the 1986 Convention is rather similar, mutatis mutandis, to Article 34 in the 1969 Convention. It simply enunciates a fundamental principle of international law: consensuality and relativity of treaties. An overview of the discussions carried out by the ILC on this Article shows that its content was not particularly debated, at least with regard to its principles. The debate focused largely on its consequences, as well as the exceptions to the rule it laid out. Indeed, international practice shows several examples of specific situations requiring a certain latitude with regard to consensuality,1 situations which have been included by the 1986 Convention in other Articles of its Title IV (‘treaties and third states or third organizations’). For further details on these specific contexts, reference is made to the comments on the relevant Articles in the present work. Focusing on Article 34 itself, two main questions were raised by the Commission with respect to its formulation. First, how to transpose a rule that had originally been formulated for States to international organizations; second, the exact meaning of the word ‘third’ as used in the wording of Article 34 has also been a subject of debate, particularly regarding the qualification as ‘third States’ of member States of an organization entering into a treaty.
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Klimis, E., & Dahin, C. (2025). 1986 Vienna Convention. Article 34: General rule regarding third States and third organizations. In CORTEN, Olivier; Pierre Klein; Vaios Koutroulis, Anne Lagerwall (Eds) (ed.), The Vienna Conventions on the Law of Treaties (Second Edition). Oxford University Press.